Record-breaking 740kg of cocaine intercepted by Customs

The Department of Customs has intercepted a record-breaking 740kg of cocaine at the Freeport in an operation spanning over 24 hours.

The operation took place between Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon. The cocaine stash was found hidden in a 40ft reefer container, with the cargo en-route from Ecuador to Slovenia with a refrigerated payload of 1,080 boxes of bananas.

Photo: Department of Customs

The container was selected by the Customs Container Monitoring Unit following a risk assessment on containers transiting through the Freeport.

When screened by officials at the Freeport Scanning Facility, some discrepancies were flagged during the scans.

Officials opened the reefer and started physically inspecting all boxes. Eventually, they found 740 packets of a white substance hidden in 37 boxes. The substance gave a positive indication for high purity cocaine, with an estimated street value between €90 million and €100 million

Photo: Department of Customs

The packets carried a net weight of 1 kg each and were concealed within the boxes of fruit. According to the Customs Department, differences in density and consistency were immediately flagged by the scanning officials.

Late last year, in a similar bust, the Customs Department made a record-breaking seizure of 510 packages of cocaine, weighing in at 612kg with a street value of €70 million. The cocaine was found hidden in pallets carrying cooking oil.

In 2019, the Customs Department seized 750kg of cocaine over 13 separate seizures, while 612kg were intercepted in 2020 in one seizure alone.

In the first half of 2021, 740kg of cocaine have been seize in a single operation.

The case has since been handed over to the Malta Police Drug Force. Duty Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo is leading the inquiry.